We just got a new credit card! It’s always exciting in the miles and points game when you’re approved for a new card and can start dreaming about all the benefits that go along with it.
Today, it was the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. The card comes with a $450 annual fee, which is quite hefty, but look at all you get:
- 100,000 Chase Ultimate Reward points for spending $4,000 on the card in the first three months of card ownership. This benefit is made even more attractive by the fact that cardholders will receive a value of 1.5 cents per point in the Ultimate Reward travel portal (as opposed to 1 cents for most Chase cards, or 1.25 cents for the Chase Sapphire Preferred), making this benefit worth AT LEAST $1,500 in travel benefits. Of course, through transferring to travel partners, you can get even more value here.
- $300 statement credit for travel expenses per calendar year. Yes, calendar year, not cardholder year. Meaning you can get it now, and then again in January, without needing to pay another annual fee.
- $100 statement credit for Global Entry. We already have Global Entry, but it makes a great gift, meaning we can save $100 from our Christmas budget
- Priority Pass lounge access. This was pretty much the only remaining useful benefit on the Citi Prestige card, which we’ll be cancelling as soon as we close out this whole Singapore Airlines booking debacle. But now we’ll still have that access as well. I value this at around $60 a year in value for us.
- Lots of other consumer & travel protection benefits and concierge type services.
So, we’re going to pay $450 for this card, and get a minimum of $2,260 in value. This is why we travel hack!
One worthwhile side note though – this card, like all Chase and Citi cards – is governed by the 5/24 rule. This rule states that they’ll only approve you for a new card if you have less than 5 cards opened in any 24 month period with that bank. So if you’re already pretty heavy into travel hacking…this may not be an option for you.
For anyone just starting out though, these are pretty amazing benefits. Just remember to cancel the card before your 1-year mark, or be prepared to pay the $450 annual fee once again. Happy travels!
